The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services announced that it has been selected as one of eight sites to participate in a five-year initiative to improve services for adoptive and guardianship families. Each of the partner sites will select and test an evidence-supported intervention designed to help ensure the success of permanent placements through adoption or guardianship. The interventions will focus on improving services not only for families preparing for adoption or guardianship, but also for these families and children after the adoption or guardianship is finalized.

As a partner site, Illinois will launch an intervention selected to meet the needs of the community, evaluate the effectiveness of that intervention, and develop a model for promoting adoption and guardianship for children who are in the foster care system and waiting for a permanent placement. In addition, the Department will explore new ways of improving and increasing the agency’s capacity to provide ongoing support after adoption or guardianship placements are finalized to help ensure the long-term stability and success of these families.

Throughout the five-year initiative, the QIC-AG will provide the Department with financial resources, technical assistance, and guidance from the QIC-AG Partnership Team, which includes experts from Spaulding for Children, The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Children’s Bureau. The QIC-AG initiative will identify which programs and services are the most effective in supporting adoption and guardianship families, and help to replicate them to child welfare systems across the country.